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Pulse gallery

What parents need to know

Positive messages

College students function without effective adult guidance, feel alienated by their reliance on electronic communication devices.

Violence

"Ghosts" emerge from machines and appear to ravage/suck life out of human victims repeatedly; nearly dead cat in closet; a young man hangs himself (close-ups of face and shoes only); car crash; fiery airplane crash; a fall off a rooftop; lost inside "the system," Mattie feels like hundreds of hands are grabbing at her; a couple of guns pointed (one by ghost at self, one by man on street at Dexter); ghost attacks Mattie and Dexter in truck, leaving their faces bloodied.

Sex

Girls wear revealing clothes; discussion of porn sites at beginning mentions "tranny grannies" and Japanese girls in bondage; one girl appears in bed with a guy after she's slept with him (she puts on her jeans and leaves the room); flashbacks to young couple in bed kissing (his hand on her bare back, otherwise no skin); girl takes bath (only face and shoulders visible).

Language

One f-word; five uses of "s--t," other mild language (including "bitch" and "hell").

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the movie is relentlessly dark, with a buzzing, spooky soundtrack: The grim music and noise hardly let up. It includes several deaths by grisly means: a college student hangs himself, while others are consumed by the machine-derived "ghost." All these deaths include screaming and shuddering, and are generally spooky and abstract. A couple of minor characters wield (but don't shoot) guns, demonstrating their desperation. Characters smoke cigarettes and drink; one of the girls sleeps with a guy she's just met at a bar. Some profanity, including one f-word, uttered in despair.

User reviews

Parents say

Kids say

What's the story?

A self-described "future shrink," Mattie (Kristen Bell, of Veronica Mars) is studying psych at an unnamed urban university. Worried that her boyfriend Josh (Jonathan Tucker) isn't returning her phone calls, she doesn't want to believe her best friend and roommate Izzie (Christina Milian) that she needs to "let go." Little does she know that he's been "consumed" by a ghost from a computer virus, a creepy grey sort of death force that seems to emerge from computers and make its victims so depressed that they kill themselves or dissolve into nothingness. The "virus," as TV reporters describe it, is soon worldwide, shutting down system after system, rendering users so pained and fearful, so "unlike themselves," that they're unable to resist the ghosts.

Is it any good?

QUALITY

Very dark and moody, PULSE imagines a dire near future for electronic communications. As college students become immersed in their devices -- cell phones, computers, PDAs -- they lose touch with each other, and so, literally, lose themselves. The problem of communication is at the center of Jim Sonzero's remake of the 2001 Japanese movie Kairo, and while this bad-machines theme is familiar, the execution is effectively ooky, with a persistent blueish light and buzzy soundtrack. The ghosts, it turns out, "want what they don't have, they want life." The film frames its horror as if the ghosts are so many Pinocchios, yearning for what seems inherently valuable to humans. Communication has turned consumptive.

While adults are ineffective (Mattie's smug therapist [Ron Rifkin] dismisses her concerns out of hand), a computer geek helps Mattie to find the webcam loop that affected Josh. It helps that Dexter (Ian Somerhalder) is very good looking, of course, but he's also clever and determined. He finds images of other dead souls, gazing forlornly from the computer screen, emblems of the future of non-communication.

Families can talk about...

Families can talk about the subjects of depression and suicide. How might the victims have been better able to cope with their psychic pain if they had communicated it with one another? They could talk about the metaphor of the ghosts: lonely, isolated people who literally disappear. They may also discuss the enduring popularity of horror movies and why young people in particular are so drawn to them.

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When you use our links to make a purchase, Common Sense Media earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes. As a nonprofit organization, these funds help us continue providing independent, ad-free services for educators, families, and kids while the price you pay remains the same. Thank you for your support.Read more

Hmm

When I watched this movie with my best friend and little sister, we got really scared. After I saw it I bragged that I saw a scary movie - but I didnt sleep well that night. I don't really recommend this for kids 13 and under.

Good horror movie~

I saw the PG-13 version around the time I was 12, and it really scared me. (although I doubt I'd be scared it I watched it again) Unlike most horror movies the plot wasn't completely stupid, but there were some stupid parts. The rated version is fine for kids 13+

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